1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical fiber connecting tool having a mechanism for connecting optical fibers together and used for an optical connector which is easily assembled with an optical fiber at a distal end of the optical fiber using the mechanism, and also relates to a connector holder, a connector holder equipped optical connector, and a tool equipped optical connector.
Priority is claimed on Japanese Patent Application No. 2003-158729, filed Jun. 3, 2003, and Japanese Patent Application No. 2003-313212, filed Sep. 4, 2003, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
2. Description of Related Art
In recent years, an optical connector that allows carrying out the operation of the attachment to the distal end of an optical fiber at a connection site outside a factory is known. For example, there is an optical connector including a ferule in which an optical fiber is housed in advance and polished at a distal end surface thereof, and a clamping portion disposed at the back (the position opposite to the distal end surface) of the ferule. The optical fiber housed in the ferule and another optical fiber to be connected are abutted and connected at the clamping portion by clamping these optical fibers in half split elements of the clamping portion, so that assembling of the optical connector in a short time is allowed. Here, because the size of the clamping portion is small, a dedicated tool that carries out opening and closing the elements (optical connector assembling tool) has been proposed (refer, for example, to Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, First Publication No.2002-23006 and Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, First Publication No. 2002-55259).
However, it is necessary that the optical connector attachment tool having the structure described above be precisely formed so that a wedge that has undergone high precision processing can be correctly inserted and released between the small-sized elements in order to realize the operation of the clamping portion of the optical connector, and thus there is a problem in that cost reductions are difficult. In addition, in the clamping portion described above, a comparatively great effort is required in both the insertion and release of the wedge in the elements due to the clamping force of a spring that imparts a clamping force to the elements, and thus in consideration of this point, the optical connector assembling tool described above must function so that the insertion and release operability of the wedge in the elements is guaranteed, and thus there are problems in that downsizing and cost reductions are difficult. With regard to size, the optical connector assembling tool described above may also encounter a case in which the optical connector assembling tool cannot be inserted in a narrow operation space such as a device casing. In addition, when a connector is to be attached to a distal end of an optical fiber using the optical connector assembling tool disposed outside a device casing, there may be disadvantage in that it is necessary that the extra extraction length for extracting the optical fiber from the device casing be guaranteed.